text: In 1962, Smidt published work on the palladium-catalysed oxidation of alkenes to carbonyl groups. In this work, it was determined that the palladium catalyst activated the alkene for the nucleophilic attack of hydroxide. Gaining insight from this work, Tsuji hypothesized that a similar activation could take place to form carbon-carbon bonds. 
  In 1965, Tsuji reported work that confirmed his hypothesis. By reacting an allylpalladium chloride dimer with the sodium salt of diethyl malonate, the group was able to form a mixture of monoalkylated and dialkylated product.
  The scope of the reaction was expanded only gradually until Trost discovered the next big breakthrough in 1973. While attempting to synthesize acyclic sesquiterpene homologs, Trost ran into problems with the initial procedure and was not able to alkylate his substrates. These problems were overcome with the addition of triphenylphosphine to the reaction mixture.
  These conditions were then tested out for other substrates and some led to "essentially instantaneous reaction at room temperature." Soon after, he developed a way to use these ligands for asymmetric synthesis. Not surprisingly, this spurred on many other investigations of this reaction and has led to the important role that this reaction now holds in synthetic chemistry.